I know I got everything I wanted yesterday, but could I please just ask that the Blackburn match isn't another shitty draw against a relegation candidate, so I can pretend Liverpool have a chance of getting into the CL, at least until January.

It would be so much easier for fans, given that there is next to no public transport on Boxing Day in a lot of places.

Which brings me on to my next point, why has our game at the Emirates been moved because of the Tube strike? The Chelsea game is going ahead and presumably there are still busses running in London, which is still more than most places get on a Boxing Day I'm sure.

it seems like it has been manipulated. Plymouth playing Bristol, Carlisle playing Preston, Hartlepool playing Oldham. They're all the places that can generate huge away trips, but they've got ties that are relatively near to home.

but it baffles me that there are people out there seriously questioning his job security. It's pretty obvious we just had a tough run of games and then lost key players and a bit of confidence. Should get a much-needed win today though, 2-0 I think.

In other news, is this the most uninspiring-looking set of Boxing Day fixtures in Premiership history?

while i'm in no way calling for his head, he's made some pretty questionable squad selections of late, and we were pretty poor today till Ben Arfa came on, and dreadful against West Brom, his tactics were baffling

until a couple of our players started giving it the "yeah, we'll probably win the title" spiel. Misquoted or not, the club should be more on top of this. Still ought to win, but we shouldn't be looking ahead of our next game. I fancy the top five to all win, actually, but if one does let that bet down, can only see it being us.

Steve Kean's treatment, now universally described as 'disgusting', 'disgraceful', like nothing else other managers can remember - it's not at all, is it? Nothing's been thrown at him, he's not been physically threatened - managers being abused in chants and banners has been going on for as long as I can remember. If it feels like it's been going on for ages it's because Kean's clearly too proud to resign.

he's waiting for Venkys to fire him so he can claim his big fat handshake. Venkys don't want to. A game of chicken, if you will.

I don't think there's anything wrong with vocally criticising a manager or owner's reign, particularly if they are both as obviously incompetent as Kean and Venkys respectively. What is stupid is booing him and by extension the whole team, for the entire 90 minutes of an absolutely crucial home derby. How can you expect a team to turn things around when you're working in that environment? There's a kind of self-serving nihilism to it, there seem to be elements of Blackburn's support who want Kean to fail so badly they're willing to make their own team suffer to see it happen. It's pretty awful.

It's easy to be cynical and say he's just after the cash but I can easily believe Kean's ambitions are more important. He wants to succeed in management and, based on his reign at Blackburn so far, he's unlikely to get another chance even in the lower leagues, let alone the Premiership. I'm sure he knows if he leaves Blackburn in their current state he's finished as a manager and I think that's driving his decision not to resign far more than the pay-off,

If I'm honest I think there's a hypocrisy and a flaw in the game in the sense that fans tend to be more open to appointing an untested but high-profile player as manager than appointing someone with extensive coaching experience and I do think Kean was given an unduly hard-time on his appointment - barmy as though the sacking of Allardyce was, it wasn't actually Kean's fault and, whilst his appointment was strange, it was no stranger than, say, Middlesborough appointing Steve McLaren who, like Kean, was not well-known outside football circles but well-spoken off within them.

But all that's by-the-by now. The fact is that Kean hasn't got the results and the criticism being levelled at him now is utterly justified on that basis. And even if he did get a hard time at the start, as you say the abuse levelled at him now is just what you get if you're managing a club at the bottom of the league and didn't have the support of the fans from the start. It's no worse than Megson got at Bolton and certainly nothing like what Lennon's been through at Celtic.

Nice to see Leeds are still a bit rubbish and live up to their reputation, they're certainly no more likable now. Good atmosphere as well, always enjoy watching teams play Leeds for the pantomime banter between fans.

Hundreds of chances followed by a rubbish concession from a set-piece. Don't deserve to be losing this, but that won't matter in the slightest if we actually lose. A striker in January please, Mr Henry.

out of our top 4 cms and none of our top 5 cbs were fit, with an end defence of Valencia-Carrick-Evra-Fryers. absolute madness.

still, Ferdinand, Smalling and Jones are due back before Blackburn, with Rafael nearing full fitness. if we can get something resembling a first 11 by early January (chelsea away, arsenal away, city away int'FA cup) its going to be a very interesting run-up

i honestly don't think it matters what eleven United put out or how many injuries they have.

i still think that the main difference between the two title contenders is that United win games because of a combination of experience and the Fergie Factor, whilst City win games largely due to moments of individual brilliance. those moments can dry up if a couple of results don't go a side's way and chins drop, the experience of a squad or its manager won't.

City are very much a team now, but that final knack of playing like headless chickens and winning only comes after years of knowing what it takes to challenge for titles.

Man City players are generally experienced; Ferguson hasn't got some mythical power that he uses. It's just that the players believe they'll win and keep going to the final whistle as a result of that belief.

But I don't think it takes years of title-winning acumen to acquire that and, in fact, I think City have now got it. Draws away to Fulham and West Brom are no worse than draws at Stoke and home to Newcastle. It's just that every team, no matter how good, will have games where they don't win. There's literally no more to it than that.

City's players aren't experienced in winning Premier League titles. That stuff matters. As the season bears on, if you've got two sides going head-to-head, one whose team and manager has one Premier League winners medal between them, one with over 50, you'd back the side with the huge experience, even if they weren't playing particularly well.

That aside, Fergie thrives under pressure, has done for years. Mancini wilts a little. When it comes to the crunch, City will crack, United won't. If you're confident enough that's unlikely to be the case i'll gladly put my money where my mouth is.

comes across like a decent guy to me, doesn't rant about referees and actually attempts to justify his tactics in interviews and stuff, probably the most intelligent sounding manager i can recall us having (apart from Colin Cooper :((().

Jones not playing and Evans coming off after scoring 0 points - that's 12 points down the drain straight away. Krul clean sheet - Vorm will probably ship 10 goals tomorrow now I have put him back in. RVP and Adebayor (and Double W - Walters and Walcott) have gotta do me proud tomorrow or I might start slipping. Booo. Still, well done for Kompany and Silva, my Man City representatives, for keeping it tight at The Hawthorns :D

but I hadn't imagine the bulk of them would come from City and the other from Spurs.

Pretty fucking rubbish today- slaughtered Fulham in the last 10 minutes, cutting through them at will. Just a shame we didn't really bother doing that in the preceding 80. No way any side in the top half should be dropping points to Fulham at home.

Something like 5 wins in their last 50-odd trips and a ludicrously bad goals per game rate away from Craven Cottage. I suppose Arsenal at least had the satisfaction of coming from behind to get their point ...

The win came at a cost though, with Matt Fish limping off and Chris Whelpdale suffering an horrendous injury late in the piece.

Hess explained: "The tackle on Chris Whelpdale, he's probably going to have to have five stitches in his testicles believe it or not, it's ripped his testicles open. It's absolutely disgusting, it was a shocking challenge for me and worthy of a red card.

Apparently we knew there was a problem with the floodlights, but went ahead anyway. I know sometimes electrical failures are beyond a club's control, but was it really this time?

Their penalty was 50-50, can see why it was given. My first reaction was that it was fair, but when you're stood in the most vocal section amongst the Aldershot "ultras" then your opinions can be affected by the views of those around you. But Rankine was brought down clearly, clear pen for us and Ward, one of the worst refs in the Football League, gives them a free kick and books Rankine. We could have had a second pen. And the sending off was fair (it was a fantastic left hook from Darren Jones), but the ref should have given us a free kick for the push on Jones seconds before from their lad. Jones should't have punched their player, but I can understand why he reacted the way he did. He reacted because Liam Dickinson smashed the ball into a fan's face, seemingly deliberately. Dickinson should have been sent off.

The atmosphere was after that was dangerous. I've been going to Aldershot games since I was 15 and I've never see a crowd so angry. Genuinely thought it might turn seriously ugly or some idiot might have run on the pitch. The floodlight failure might even have defused a very febrile situation. The tannoy man called the game off on his own, then made himself look a bit of a prick as he had to be reminded that only the ref could call the game off. Which it was.

Has anyone been to a game abandoned at HT before? Should I be able to use the ticket to get into the re-arranged game at no extra cost?

Like when Stoke came to City last week and didn't even try. Wigan yesterday, possibly Wolves this afternoon.

I don't think it's because they're absolutely awful, or because the top sides are that great, just that it makes sense to not go hell for leather away at a top five side when you've got, say, QPR at home a couple of days later.

In these instances, i think it's just better to not get involved in the belittling smaller clubs stuff. Just pat them on the head, see them on their way and wish them the best. We drew at West Brom yesterday, where i think every other top six side has won so far, we were below par and they performed extremely well, fair play to them.

Besides, it's not as if Arsenal play total football nowadays. Given the amount of games they do drop points you'd have thought their supporters would have learned how to do so with a bit of dignity.

Arsenal played well. Very difficult to kick a ball past ten men standing on the goal line. We literally could have substituted Szczesny for Pat Rice after an hour and it would have made no difference apart from Wolves might have felt compelled to do something with the ball.

Johnson did well for his limited ability. Him and his mates are quite good at jumping about, but even then we won a lot of headers in the box. Hennessey was the outstanding performer though. If he'd have played like most games he's had this season we could have scored four or five.

Just one of those games where a shitty team stuck everyone behind the ball and rode their luck. Well done to Wolves. But I'm so so glad I didn't pay £50 to watch that like I was considering because that wasn't a football match.

I can almost hear you tears from the midlands. 'We literally could have substituted Szczesny for Pat Rice after an hour' - might have had something to do with having a player sent off....for less than one of yours did twice. Within half a second.

I've seen games where teams go out to kick teams over the park and hoof it up, I used to watch Ilkeston Town. Wolves just defended - and did it with ten men for 20 minutes aswell. What would you have wanted them to do?!

Arguably one of the best sides they've ever had, certainly so in our lifetimes, yet most of their supporters seem to be sticking nearer to "Yeah, we're quite a good side, think we've got a really good chance of finishing ahead of Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal if we can stay clear of injuries" rather than "Aahahahaha, we're gonna storm the fucking league, you're all dicks" stuff.

Obviously, no-one thinks they're good enough to challenge for the title, but they're the best of the rest, and Arsenal fans shouldn't be against admitting that. Looking at the combined squads of thier rivals this season, i honestly couldn't name more than one or two who'd strengthen them.

It's not as if Arsenal fans can even take the "yeah, but they've spent the GDP of most countries" spiel either. They're just better than Arsenal. So it goes.

Having three or four individually-talented dribblers in one team doesn't turn you into a cohesive footballing unit, it just means you have individual flair in your side. Their first goal vs Swansea was quite good I suppose but having Hoilett, Rochina, Formica, Pedersen (who's only still there for his throws) does not a team make. Swansea play like a single-minded short-passing machine. Blackburn play like a rabble.

That said, Stoke, Villa, Sunderland and Everton probably play a more unappealing brand of football, so you're technically right

Actually, Villa are the team who really deserve relegation. They're almost unimaginably appalling

City aside, sure, there aren't many who've played better football, but saying they're more exciting to watch than City's ridiculous bordering on insane. The gulf in terms of football between City and Spurs is as big as it is between Spurs and Villa.

i know that they've probably played just as well in a number of games i haven't seen, and by all accounts have been playing well, but based on the televised games i've seen (chelsea, fulham, newcastle, stoke from memory, probs some others) they've not looked like a top 4 side, but they do tonight.

really are mind-bogglingly fast. Easily the fastest side in the Premiership I think. Of course when they are up against sides who can defend against that it quickly becomes apparent how few other ideas they have, but it is pretty incredible to see.

which is unusual as I'm normally pretty ambivalent to them, indeed find the media crowing over Redknapp pretty tiresome, their adventure in champions league last season was predictable, wide pace > the Milans, Redknapp seems to lack tactical nous to me, even if he has a nice swashbuckling style.

However, while still think they could get turned over by their predictability, they are blisteringly quick and direct, and glad the focus seems to be on Modric by the Media rather than all the mediocre England players that used to clog up their squad. Modric is a lovely player, pleasure to watch.

I genuinely think Adam has to rescind his place for him. Adam has been totally exposed by Lucas. As a team we can't afford to have a relatively immobile midfielder whilst missing our support. Gerrard's energy and vision is exactly what Liverpool need if and when we lose our two most important players of our season (Suarez and, as we already have done, Lucas).

and has been played as a winger when he's come on, and not done great there tbh, so dunno how his form is. He's not going to set the world alight though, and Ba has scored ALMOST all our goals.

I think our midfield does have goals in it from Cabaye who has a great shot in him but generally plays (well) deeper, it's just our wings really don't get goals, Jonas because he's defensive generally and is good at retaining the ball but will rarely score, and Obertan because he's mostly been shit, though had a good game vs Bolton.

If we could accodate Vuckic in a 3 man midfield, judging by his screamers against the posts we'd get some more.

because he's always praised with the proviso he's soon to be injured, but how FUCKING AMAZING is Ba? I think even with his West Ham record, had kind of thought him a reasonable stop-gap...but he comes deep for the ball, works really hard then just knows how to get the ball into the net somehow...56% of our goals are from him or something, we're completely doomed without him.

beating Brighton 3-0, on a very good run of form at the moment, wouldn't have thought we'd have got much from the games against West Ham and Leeds. Gorkks seems like an absolute bargain.
Sneaked into the playoff places now..

Considering the reason our appeal was rejected was due to it not being an "obvious or serious" error on the part of the referee.

As you say, the match result has obviously played some part in the decision, but for them to judge two similar cases differently, telling one party that it was due to there being no 'obvious' error, is an absolute nonsense.